Targeting Informative Messages to a Network of Consumers
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James D. Campbell
Abstract
This paper considers duopolists targeting informative messages to consumers who share information locally with their network neighbors. A monopolist targets a parsimonious set of nodes that informs all consumers either directly or by word-of-mouth. A duopolist faces a tradeoff between this efficient targeting and possible preemption by a competitor's message. Under gentle price competition, duopolists saturate the network when messages are cheap, and target sets similar to the monopolist's when messages are costly. Under fierce price competition, duopolists' messages segment the network in an intermingled patchwork. Effects of network structure and the cost of messages on firm outcomes are discussed.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial Introduction
- Special Issue Introduction: Social Networks and Economics
- Article
- It's all about Connections: Evidence on Network Formation
- Equilibrium Selection in Network Coordination Games: An Experimental Study
- Network Multipliers: The Optimality of Targeting Neighbors
- Targeting Informative Messages to a Network of Consumers
- Formation of Citation Networks by Rational Players and The Diffusion of Ideas
- Small World Networks with Segregation Patterns and Brokers
- Multilevel Mediation in Symmetric Trees
- Does Homophily Predict Consensus Times? Testing a Model of Network Structure via a Dynamic Process
- Organized Crime Networks: an Application of Network Analysis Techniques to the American Mafia
- Urban Crime and Ethnicity
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial Introduction
- Special Issue Introduction: Social Networks and Economics
- Article
- It's all about Connections: Evidence on Network Formation
- Equilibrium Selection in Network Coordination Games: An Experimental Study
- Network Multipliers: The Optimality of Targeting Neighbors
- Targeting Informative Messages to a Network of Consumers
- Formation of Citation Networks by Rational Players and The Diffusion of Ideas
- Small World Networks with Segregation Patterns and Brokers
- Multilevel Mediation in Symmetric Trees
- Does Homophily Predict Consensus Times? Testing a Model of Network Structure via a Dynamic Process
- Organized Crime Networks: an Application of Network Analysis Techniques to the American Mafia
- Urban Crime and Ethnicity
